The man, thought to be Peter Skyllberg, was trapped in his car since December 19 and kept himself alive by eating snow, his car acting as an igloo which helped keep him warm and alive.
Chief medical officer at Noorland’s University Hospital Dr Ulf Segerberg said: “This man obviously had good clothes; he’s had a sleeping bag and been in car that has been snowed over. Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below OC and if you have good clothes then you survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature.”
Withstanding the cold is one thing, but managing to sustain yourself with only water for two months is just as remarkable a feat of endurance. This length of time is at the upper limit of what a person would be able to survive without food.
Skyllberg was found by a couple of snowmobilers who dug out the car on the remote road thinking it was abandoned or crashed, to their surprise they found a man asleep in the back seat in his sleeping bag.
Theories have been posited that Skyllberg went in to a human form of hibernation, his body temperature dropping and his body using less energy as a result. However Dr Segerberg is sceptical of this theory, commenting that it is not his ‘area of expertise’.
Skyllberg is awake and said to be ‘feeling well’ as he recuperates in University Hospital.
Photo: Getty
